(no subject)
William F. Buckley, Jr
1925 - 2008
At a press conference during his campaign for mayor of New York City:
Q: Do you have any chance of winning?
Buckley: No.
Q: Do you really want to be mayor?
Buckley: I've never considered it.
Q: Well, conservatively speaking, how many votes do you expect to get?
Buckley: One.
Q: And who would cast that vote?
Buckley: My secretary.
-- 1965 (When later asked what he would do if elected, he replied, "Demand a recount.")
We deem it the central revelation of Western experience that man cannot ineradicably stain himself, for the wells of regeneration are infinitely deep. . . . Khrushchev cannot take permanent advantage of our temporary disadvantage, for it is the West he is fighting. And in the West there lie, however encysted, the ultimate resources, which are moral in nature. . . . Even out the depths of despair, we take heart in the knowledge that it cannot matter how deep we fall, for there is always hope. In the end, we will bury him.
-- Address in New York, after Khrushchev was invited to speak at the U.N., 1960
Ah, but the sea always has something lying in wait for you. . . . You are moving at racing speed, parting the buttery sea as with a scalpel, and the waters roar by, themselves exuberantly subdued by your powers to command your way through them. Triumphalism -- and the stars also seem to be singing together for joy.
-- "Thoughts on a Final Passage," essay, 2004
Despair is inappropriate for a culture as buoyant as our own.
-- Address at the Yale Political Union, 2006
RIP.
1925 - 2008
At a press conference during his campaign for mayor of New York City:
Q: Do you have any chance of winning?
Buckley: No.
Q: Do you really want to be mayor?
Buckley: I've never considered it.
Q: Well, conservatively speaking, how many votes do you expect to get?
Buckley: One.
Q: And who would cast that vote?
Buckley: My secretary.
-- 1965 (When later asked what he would do if elected, he replied, "Demand a recount.")
We deem it the central revelation of Western experience that man cannot ineradicably stain himself, for the wells of regeneration are infinitely deep. . . . Khrushchev cannot take permanent advantage of our temporary disadvantage, for it is the West he is fighting. And in the West there lie, however encysted, the ultimate resources, which are moral in nature. . . . Even out the depths of despair, we take heart in the knowledge that it cannot matter how deep we fall, for there is always hope. In the end, we will bury him.
-- Address in New York, after Khrushchev was invited to speak at the U.N., 1960
Ah, but the sea always has something lying in wait for you. . . . You are moving at racing speed, parting the buttery sea as with a scalpel, and the waters roar by, themselves exuberantly subdued by your powers to command your way through them. Triumphalism -- and the stars also seem to be singing together for joy.
-- "Thoughts on a Final Passage," essay, 2004
Despair is inappropriate for a culture as buoyant as our own.
-- Address at the Yale Political Union, 2006
RIP.